Chapter 210: Sharing the Same Heaven - Part 16

My skill build is fundamentally specialized in mobility, above all else.
Whether arrows are raining down, spears are thrusting forward, I'm backed up to the edge of a cliff, or cornered in a dead end.
If there's no path, I'll take the walls. If there are no walls, I'll take the sky. If they ever implement a way to simultaneously activate all my skills at once, I'm absolutely confident I could run right across the ceiling.

A massive mass weapon swung down and slammed into the ground. Fighting it, I've come to understand the traits of the character known as Ctarrnid. Its ability to copy playstyles using the jewels is certainly powerful, and undeniably troublesome, but so far, not a single person has dropped out.
Part of that is because frontliners like Rei-shi, Akitsu Akane, and myself—who all possess ways to deal with incoming attacks—are drawing the aggro. But more than anything, the current situation is only possible because Ctarrnid itself is fundamentally "weak."

"Your movements are way too monotonous...!"

A greatsword is a weapon that slashes through targets via sheer weight, not sharpness. Therefore, the blade itself isn't sharp enough to cut flesh just by touching it.
Activating Shana-Oh Possession, Gravity Zero, and Trial Traverse. I leaped onto the blade of the greatsword and sprinted straight up it, balancing like a tightrope walker.
Furthermore, with its cooldown finished, I reactivated Vorpal Secret Arts 【Fading Mirror】. Leaving behind the aggro as a mere afterimage midway up the greatsword, my main body—now functionally a phantom—reached the top of the greatsword and leapt.

A playstyle copy. I see, powerful and troublesome indeed. But there's no application behind the imitation. Even if it copies how to move the body and how to attack, Ctarrnid doesn't apply it with any original thought. It's exactly like a command-input fighting game: its movements follow strict patterns.
Logically speaking, it's difficult to improvise and memorize eight entirely different patterns on the fly. However, learning them through physical intuition rather than logic is entirely possible. In other words, practice makes perfect.

"This makes three times. Learn your lesson already, Ctarrnid."

Activating Flit Float. Leaping above Ctarrnid's head in a completely inverted state with my head pointing down and my feet pointing up, I kicked off an invisible foothold of air to launch myself downward. Converting a fall supercharged by the momentum of a jump and gravity into pure attack power, I readied the Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets clad in two different skill effects.

Activating Lethe Vanisher and Airgetlám. A luck-scaling fist, which possessed an increased chance of inflicting stun/flinch if it landed a headshot, was ruthlessly smashed straight into the space between Ctarrnid's brows.

Vu, voooooooo............!

With a groan that made it hard to tell whether it was a "Vu" or a "Vo," Ctarrnid's massive body dropped to its knees. Using Ctarrnid's back as a substitute for a slide, I landed, nodded at the approaching Rei-shi, and immediately evasion-rolled to the side. In the very next moment, pure white light slammed into Ctarrnid's back.

"Catastrophe...!"

Rei-shi's... or rather, strictly speaking, the Unique Equipment "Armor of Dual Visages" and the "Greatsword of the God and Demons (Antinomy)" held within its hands—the absolute pinnacle of maximum firepower, synonymous with "Armageddon." To secure that single blow—which is practically mandatory when fighting a Unique Monster—Rei-shi needed to land a total of ten heavy attacks beforehand.
I had already finished using Emul—whom I temporarily put down from my head—as a messenger to inform the entire party. They're doing their best in the rear guard right now, but if push comes to shove, I'll definitely have them run interference again.

Taking a direct hit to the crown of its head, followed immediately by massive firepower slammed into its back, Ctarrnid toppled over (ate dirt). A bunch of little people swarming and brutally beat-down a toppled giant is honestly a rather questionable sight to behold, but sacrificing appearances for the sake of efficiency and clearing the boss is an unavoidable destiny in gaming.

"...I'm out of arrows."

"Say what!?"

"Rust is out of arrows!"

It looks like she's switching to her magic bow, but since it consumes MP, it probably won't be long before Rust runs completely dry...

"I'm sorry! I'm almost out of items too!"

"My magic power is at its limit as well desu waaa!"

"M-My magic power is also at its limit..."

The stream of bad news piling up conveyed both our current advantage and our impending disadvantage simultaneously. Damn you Ctarrnid, you're way too ridiculously tough... Because its actual flinch threshold is lower than other Unique Monsters, it topples over quite frequently. But its toughness... or rather, the durability of that Ultimate Fishball Body—which was probably patched together from the absorbed monsters—is way too damn high.
Having fought continuously from the second phase all the way to the final phase, and considering that while fish could substitute for healing items, there was no workaround for weapon durability, we were slowly but surely being backed into a corner.

Even though I have a diverse arsenal of weapons, I'm nearing my limits too. Even Duxram—which normally doesn't lose durability on critical hits—is steadily wearing down. In this game, if durability hits 0, weapons and armor are completely lost. There seem to be certain exceptions that don't get lost, but there's absolutely no way everyone has something like that.
However, I seriously doubt Ctarrnid will go down before Rei-shi and I play our trump cards. And I have one more major concern...

"Sunraku-san... I can... do it...!"

Damn it, thinking about it carefully, why does everyone so naturally defer to my judgment? I just want to charge forward on the frontlines; I have no desire to lead everyone else... Gaaah, alright, should we do it? Do we have to do it?
My concern is the phenomenon common to boss enemies: damage capping at a certain HP threshold. Immediately after hitting it, a cutscene plays or they transition to another phase... Whatever the reason, even if you deal 10,000 damage to an enemy with 100 HP, only 50 of it actually shaves away their health. That kind of system-enforced trap absolutely exists in this world.
If Ctarrnid has something like that, we'll plunge into an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation in an instant. But it's also a fact that dragging this out will just lead to a slow death by attrition... Gaaah, whatever happens, happens!

"Got it... Let's sprint to the finish line! Rei-shi and I will go for the decisive blow, so everyone else distance yourselves and prepare for follow-up attacks!"

"Sunraku-san! Shouldn't I participate as well!?"

"No, you are our insurance for when things go south! Conserve your strength!"

"Yes!"

"Prepare yourself, Ctarrnid... 【Exceed Charge】!"

Surfacing above the ocean was a mistake on your part, Ctarrnid. Did you forget that my Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets have been bathing in the moonlight this entire time?

The pouring moonlight had been continuously amplifying the firepower of this single strike. This is the final phase, so you'd better not have some weird damage stopper built in, alright?

The Gauntlets transformed, its golden core glowing brilliantly, eager to unleash its destructive energy. Perhaps Ctarrnid's brain turned into pure muscle the moment it acquired that macho body, because it readied its fists, seemingly intending to crush me first.

"I'm taking your flank! 【Reject】!"

I moved first, but Ctarrnid reached me first. However, right before the punch unleashed from its right arm connected, I used my planted left foot as an axis, twisting my body and throwing my right foot forward, shifting my center of gravity from left to right as I spun.
Like rotating gears, I completely dodged Ctarrnid's straight punch, bringing its left flank perfectly within my range in a single step.

Output 120%. Supreme firepower unleashed with absolute disregard for my own self-destruction... Even if a damage stopper exists, I have to guarantee that Rei-shi's subsequent attack lands cleanly.
Compared to the areas protected by abs and thick bones, the flank is lightly guarded. The body blow connected, and the moment the hidden needle in the right gauntlet pierced deep into Ctarrnid's flank, erosion and destruction manifested as raw kinetic impact, causing Ctarrnid to convulse violently.

"If you've got a hidden trick... hurry up and spit it ouuuuuut!!"

Burst.
Ctarrnid's flank was massively gouged out, scattering as crystal fragments. Pushed back by the shockwave, my body bounced away like an absolute joke. As I was sent flying, I could clearly see cracks running down both my gauntlets, spewing black smoke—an undeniable sign of critical malfunction.

"Being blown upwards actually works out perfectly... Araba! Catch me!"

"How can you scream such pathetic words with so much confidence..."

Because hitting the ground means the recoil will kill me since my HP was reduced to 1! So getting caught mid-air is the obvious solution!
I already made Araba prove that we can still swim in areas without water thanks to Ctarrnid's inversion effect. Precisely because of that, being caught by Araba as he swam through the air allowed me to survive right on the edge with exactly 1 HP.

"What about Ctarrnid!"

My HP doesn't matter right now. What about Rei-shi's attack? What happened to Ctarrnid after eating my attack? Desperately forcing my wavering vision to focus, what I saw below me was...

VoooooooooooaaaaaaAAAAAAA!!!

"───Sing the end of the beginning... Kuh, 'Armageddon'!!"

Even with its flank blown open, Ctarrnid deployed massive, pitch-black tentacles from its back—those exact same tentacles that had dragged us to the bottom of the deep sea seven days ago. The sight before me was a catastrophic clash between those tentacles and a spiraling vortex of destruction, interwoven with crossing streaks of black and white.

Author's Afterword
Ctarrnid: "Alright, final sprint, time to get serious."

• Giant Tentacles
  Super-massive tentacles deployed from the eight jewels the moment Imaginative Form Ctarrnid's HP drops below a certain threshold. At this point, the playstyle copying via the jewels ceases, but honestly, this is way more troublesome. Why? Because just swinging a single tentacle obliterates half the Colosseum.
  That being said, their movements are slow, they have massive openings, and there are safe zones, so dealing with them is actually quite simple......... However, since there are eight tentacles, the probability of getting hit increases the larger the party size.

Between the general players enjoying an MHW-style exploration of uncharted lands and the protagonist group engaging in a giant monster death match... which one is actually more fun as a game? ...Actually, I kinda want to write a story about MHW-style uncharted land exploration... I want to write settings for new monsters... Actually, I've already thought of some to an extent... A scorpion... No, never mind.

Currently weeping tears of blood while staring at MHW info because I don't have a PS4 on hand. Rambo: The Sorrowful Descent of the Four Auspicious Beasts.